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Evictions
Tape Modern got evicted. We were aware that it will come soon but the beliefs and security came a week earlier than our sources let us believe, so we were taken off guard. In an ideal world, we would have been ready, reinforced the barricades and knowing where we would move. Alas, we only had a list of possible buildings we could move into, but we had not done our research on them yet. It turned out none of them was viable so we ended up house hunting while part of the crew stood watch for all our gear. In the end, we only spent one night under the sky…
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Show’s over
The Dogs have eaten all the Food and our show is closed. Many thanks to all our artists, visitors and the squat crew for sharing this with us! Before we move on to transforming the space back to an artist studio, there’s still a few things about the show we would like to share with you: Last Friday we had a small event at the gallery: altercation by enne&moffa was performed for the second and last time. We had a small but a lovely crowd to experience the work and the wine with us. I don’t usually repeat a performance so it was an interesting and new experience for me…
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Opening = Happening
First and foremost I want to thank all the wonderful artists who showed their work at Food to the Dogs and everyone who came to the opening! It was quite the night; we had a good turnout especially considering that this was Tape Modern’s first show and because of the secret location people had to wait for the release of the address to find our place, bit of a hassle but people made the effort. We had gorgeous works, plenty to drink (thanks to Sand Bar and Cloud Water) and the performances created engaging action. The vibe was SO good and we had loads of fun doing it all! We…
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Food to the Dogs
We are happy to announce the first exhibition coming up in Tape Modern: Food to The Dogs I am very excited about this exhibition! It will be the first one we do with our new space, the artists we have lined up are interesting and I love the works we’ll have the privilege to show. Naturally, we need to keep in mind that we might be evicted at any point. We have plans in place of how to get all the works safely to the next building and how to keep the ball rolling if this would happen. Because of this, we are doing this on a…
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Up and Running
As I mentioned in my last post, Origins part 2, the squat was too precarious an environment to realise modestly ambitious how we had planned it. I was not sad about it. On the contrary, I felt I found something that was even better for me in this time and place. Not all of us agreed though and after some conversation, we came to the conclusion that we had very different needs for studios due to the nature of our practices and therefore trying to find a studio together didn’t seem very meaningful. Modestly ambitious became a frame work for other art activities and Sophia and I decided to stay…
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Origins – Part 2
After all the clearing, cleaning, fixing and building we had a studio at the Cozy. I had had an amazing time with the crew, I felt welcomed and I enjoyed the groups dynamic of a dysfunctional family of organised chaos. The people, the stories and everything in that place hooked me completely. Some of them I knew from before, seen them in demonstrations or at the first Mancunian squat I visited at the Corner House, some I even knew from uni, but most of them were complete strangers to me when I started working there. On top of that, the environment suited my art practice perfectly: work with site specific…
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Origins – Part 1
This is the first post of a new gallery and studio space founded by Riikka Enne and Sophia Moffa: Tape Modern. Tape Modern is a mobile gallery, currently collaborating with a squatting crew Love C.O.Ps [Community Occupied Properties] and operates in various buildings in Manchester. Love C.O.Ps are dedicated to hosting events that are open to all and everyone. I should start from the beginning: Sophia, myself and a third friend of ours, a fellow artist Katerina Eleftheriadou, founded a collective called modestly ambitious. The goal was to find a studio space where we could also host exhibitions and build workshops for wood and metal with all proper equipment,…